Living in a valley, as we do here in Seeley Lake, one comes to appreciate both the beautiful scenery of the surrounding mountains and the shelter from the high winds that are so often a part of life on the plains. And as in life, the mountain top experiences (beautiful views and far off vistas) are often ones we would like to hold on to. Yet we are called to return to the valley floor to spend the bulk of our time and existence.
God often gives his missions to his people during these “mountain top experiences.” Such was the case with Moses at Mount Sinai.
Moses ascended the mountain and received God’s commandments for his people. Imagine how thrilling it must have been to have God reveal His plans and purposes for His people to you. But then to return to the valley floor (Exodus 32) and find that these lofty visions and commandments had already been desecrated by the very same people God was directing.
It is all too easy for us to say, “Those Israelites were certainly a stiff necked lot.” And then discover (sometimes within moments) that we too are guilty of building our own “Golden Calves,” not as a literal sense but rather by letting our own human will direct our efforts.
There is, we find, a vast difference between the reality of some vision God has given us and our own ability to live out that reality in the valley of our daily lives. We find there is a chasm between the reality of the vision God gives us and our own ability to live out that vision. It is in the valley that God batters us into shape so His vision might become real in us.
Paul said it this way, “Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is sin living in me that does it.”
It is this very same battle that we fight in the valley. The battle between good and evil, the battle between God’s law and the law of sin and death. It is a battle already won but a battle that is ongoing. We must claim the very victory which has been won for us at great cost, if we are to make God’s visions for us a reality IN us.
“Who will rescue me (us) from this body of sin and death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
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